September 3, 2010
-
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
When my wife and I put our son down for a nap, we sing him “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” so that he has an extra sleep cue to help him get to sleep.
At first I didn’t know the words, but they are now etched into my brain:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!I have learned a lot about this simple song, and have been meaning to write it down. So here goes:
1) “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” is sung to the same tune as the Alphabet Song (“a, b, c, d, e, f, g…”). When I first realized this, it absolutely blew my mind. Sing both songs out loud right now and see. It’s the same song!!!
2) The same tune is used to sing the words of “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”!!!! Well there are some small differences, but it’s the same song more or less.
3) The name of the song is “”Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman.” It was a French nursery rhyme. Mozart wrote twelve variations on the song called, Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman”. Pretty creative title huh. Anyway when I get bored singing the standard song, I use one of Mozart’s variations.
4) The words of the song are pretty ignorant. “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?” As Wikipedia will tell you, “a star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma held together by gravity.” “Like a diamond in the sky”? A star is like a diamond? This is your explanation for what a star is?? Come on… it’s almost as if this song is based on the scientific knowledge of the world back in 1806. Oh right.
Anyway the words of the song kinda bothered me for a while, because they felt somewhat ignorant to me and I like to pretend that I am a scientist. But then I read the original lyrics to the song, “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman.”
Ah! I shall tell you, mum,
That which causes my torment.
Papa wants me to reason
Like an adult.
I say that sweets
Are better than reason.I read that and it was like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star was talking to me across the centuries! It was saying, “Don’t worry about making sense of this song. Don’t reason like an adult. It’s just a nursery rhyme.”
Btw, this is the sort of dumb crap you think about when you become a parent.
Comments (40)
#1 I have only just noticed this
You really go deep into that.
I knew the ABC part. The rest was stuff I never really thought about.
You think too much.
Twinkle, twinkle superstar
Honda, Ford and Toyota,
Whiskey, cocaine, women too
Won’t make a real man out of you.
wow. hahahah. incredible. i’m impressed.
It is the same tune,I never noticed!
Reason > sweets
haha, use too much scientific knowledge and the kid will not go to sleep
A ton of songs are just revisions of others…cost George Harrison a fortune…My Sweet Lord…and He’s So Fine.
I knew all of that except the words to the French lullaby! lol
That’s what happens when one is a music major, I guess. I like that revelation you had.
I remember playing Mozart’s variations on the song when I studied piano. I still think the words Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are, are still enchanting and magical for a child and even for an adult and it beats singing a song about black holes which would probably scare the hell out of any poor kid.
Never noticed!
Apparently there’s a bunch more lyrics to the song but we only sing the first part.
@XndraXstz - hahaha! Love it!
Haha nice. Twinkle is part of my everyday job.. Along with ol macdonald, bingo, ABCs, itsy bitsy, etc. It’s weird to hear/sing those songs again as an adult!
Ring around the rosey’s is even worse! I think it’s about death. Dont sing that one to Char Char..
true!
“Don’t worry about making sense of this song. Don’t reason like an adult. It’s just a nursery rhyme.”
amen.
one that works at any age is the round ‘row, row, row your boat”
it has awesome words.
Ha! You think its bad as a parent….wait til you become a GRANDparent,O M G!!!! I thought I was through acting like that.The book I read my 7 year old granddaughter last night….geeeeez!
haha =) this was a thorough expose on twinkle twinkle little star. instead of just singing the nursery rhyme, i’ll explain it to my kid. he’ll probably rush to get him/herself to sleep before i even sing the damn song. =)
are you sure it’s “what you are?” i said this too and my husband says it’s “where you are”. i suppose i could google it myself but it’s reassuring to know that i’m not the only that was saying “what you are”
Cute. ^_^
how old is your son? just remember, little kids are easy and simple. too much thinking doesn’t work. but then again, we’re always learning as parents, huh? our daughter is 17 months old and she just changes daily…
here’s the rest of the lyrics so you can ponder about.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When there’s nothing he shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, through the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
In the dark blue sky so deep
Through my curtains often peep
For you never close your eyes
Til the morning sun does rise
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
The Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland) had a much funnier version:
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you’re at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you’re at!
Nice little poem that almost everyone knows or heard as a small child. Ring around the roses is another one.
You are awesome
Sweet!
But how could you not know the words to TTLS?!
John! happy belated birthday!!!!
@nhungbear - Interesting! I didn’t knew the rest of the song’s lyrics! I might just sing the song for the rest of the day.
Zanga is broked
I’ll miss reading your blog
!
john i cant count how many times i have sung this song. and i miss that.
Thoughtful post, in its most simplistic form.
If this is the kind of “dumb crap” you think of as a parent, then I look forward to the experience even more.
Almost fell a sleep just reading this post
Huslån utan kontantinsats
Lån trots skuld hos kronofogden
Lån utan uc
testing comment box
John, the spammers are out in force. I’m getting ten a day. They spam photo comments with advertisements for pirate watches and handbags. As soon as I block Xiaoguai73, Xiaoguai75 appears. I’m thinking that if we can shut down the pirate outlets they’re plugging via sending I.C.E. that might work better than trying to stop the spamming. If you want the usernames of the spammers, I can supply that. I’m not so concerned for me per se so much as for new users.
Think of how many people know and sing this song and how connected that makes us.
Second song I learned how to play on the cello (the first being “Mary Had a Little Lamb”….ah those were the good ol’ days.